GBTA and ORP

[scbauer]

So I had a GBTA in my tank for about a month. It was very sticky when I put it in the tank back at the beginning of October. It stuck its foot in the rock where I initially put it, and has moved about 1" since. It started to wander around the tank about a week ago, and then on Monday morning, I woke up and found it had died over the night.

I took a quick look at my AC3 and found the following:

I know very little about ORP, but I know it usually reacts the opposite of pH (pH increase = ORP decrease). I didn't see much of an increase in pH over this same time period.

My question for those of you who know a lot about anemones is this... Do you think the low ORP killed the anemone, or do you think the dead anemone caused the low ORP?

I want to make sure I figure out what happened before I get a new nem in the tank. Thanks!

-Scott

 

[scbauer]

Oh, and before all the water parameter questions, I check my water with Salifert test kits and have had good readings. My corals seem to be doing fine and the fish are happy. I will be bringing a sample of my water to the LFS today to have them test the water, just to make sure my Salifert test kits aren't giving me bad readings.

-Scott

 

[MarinaP]

I know very little about ORP...

here is a good start

http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2003-12/rhf/feature/index.php

 

[scbauer]

Thanks, I'll read through it... I think I actually read this about a year ago, but didn't have any way to measure ORP at the time, so all the info has since been lost by my brain. I was actually hoping Randy might stumble upon this thread and chime in.

-Scott

 

[scbauer]

From the article here: http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2003-12/rhf/feature/index.php

Most reef aquarists, aside from those that use ozone and must therefore monitor ORP to prevent overdosing, use ORP to monitor if anything unusual happens in the aquarium. A sudden drop in ORP, for example, suggests that the reducers are suddenly gaining ground. That might be because a gush of organic molecules has been released from a dead organism, or because the oxygen supply is not keeping up with demand for some reason. Aquarists might use such information like an alarm suggesting the tank needs to be looked at closely. Most aquarists do not target any specific ORP value as being optimal, in part because ORP measurement is subject to considerable potential error.

I'm leaning towards that ORP going up because the anemone died and realeased a bunch of organic compounds into the water. I feel like I'm on an episode of CSI... "Time of Death is approximately 1:07 am" (RIP GBTA )